Emotions collide with news of homes

More than 700 packed a Wednesday community meeting in Loveland hoping for word from inside the fire lines

Jun. 14, 2012

A dejected couple walk out of the community information meeting at The Ranch Wednesday. Many people did not get information about their homes because a lot of the area has not been assessed. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

Written by

Lindsey Collom

Special to The Coloradoan

LOVELAND — For those displaced by the High Park Fire, the daily trips to The Ranch in Loveland have become increasingly crowded affairs with few answers to be found.

As some crews begin the painstaking transition from active containment to identifying structures lost, information is reaching those who need it.

And it can’t come soon enough for the Ramirez family, who have worked to create the perfect vacation home only to leave it empty, waiting for a fire that could decimate it or leave it untouched.

Rebecca Ramirez and her husband purchased their second home in November.

“It wasn’t livable when we bought it, but my husband’s a carpenter so I knew he could do it,” she said. “I retired this year so that was going to be our little heaven up in the Rockies.”

She went to the meeting Wednesday expecting to hear something, anything, about her cabin.

“There hasn’t been anything out of Poudre Park,” she said. “We weren’t told why. We asked, but nobody seemed to know. There were a whole bunch of people who were very very irate.

“It was a two-hour meeting. That’s a long time to wait and not get anything.”

Nearly 700 evacuees packed the First Bank Building at The Ranch for word on what was happening inside the more than 46,000-acre wildfire’s path of destruction. Some left with orange cards and a pass back to some semblance of normalcy. Some left frustrated because of a lack of news. Others left to pick up the pieces of what life was only five days prior.

As officials read off addresses of homes the fire spared, a spectrum of emotions came over the assembly. Tears, stoic silence and hugs of jubilation simultaneously dotted the human landscape.

Fire officials said they only assessed homes, meaning the fate of garages and barns was not discussed. They also cautioned that these homes were safe as of 1 p.m. Wednesday.

This process will continue in the following days as fire personnel are able to go into areas to accurately assess the damage. Officials are asking evacuees to be patient as crews work to battle flames and preserve property.

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“Wanting to get information to the people is very important, but right now we’re focusing primarily on putting the fire out,” said Mark Wurdeman, a fire information officer. “And as we free people up, we’re working on getting that information.”

Wurdeman said many homes are damaged in Poudre Park, but officials can’t be certain which properties have burned: much of the signage has been destroyed. To know for sure, crews must capture data at each property to match against county assessor maps, Wurdeman said.

So far, active fire has kept teams at bay.

“As we start getting other firefighters in from around the nation, other trucks, then the local folks can start going in there to do some assessments to what the losses are,” Wurdeman said. “It’s a patience thing. If you maybe lost your house, you wouldn’t be very patient. But that’s the situation.”

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Lenny Layman and Josh Mannheimer rushed from McKee building Wednesday afternoon clutching bright orange placards issued by the Sheriff’s Office. Evacuees from six neighborhoods that were cleared to return to their homes had to show their ID to get the passes that would grant access to roads restricted by sheriff’s deputies.

“It’s nice to go back,” Layman said. “I’d rather be in the line to get one of these than to be told I didn’t have a house anymore.”

Layman said he had monitored websites and TV newscasts for any information on his home since leaving it Saturday afternoon. All indications were that it had been spared, he said, as was confirmed Wednesday.

“There’s a lot of people complaining that they haven’t been getting information in a timely manner, but the focus has been on putting the fire out and it’s been awesome,” he added.

Dan Lousberg appreciated the focus but said some evacuees have gone without word for too long. Lousberg and his wife, Jackie, attended the meeting Wednesday to learn about her family’s homes in Poudre Park but left empty and angered.

“Maybe they don’t want to tell everybody what’s going on. Maybe they can’t get in there because of the volatility,” Lousberg said. “But just tell people. Send a face to talk to people from the fire management areas and tell them, ‘It’s still volatile up here; it’s hot; it’s still burning. All we’re doing is fighting fire.’”